Ep. 14: Dave Perkins: Master Whiskey Entrepreneur

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Dave Perkins is the Founder and former CEO of High West Distillery, a craft whiskey producer. He sold the company in 2016 after 12 years to Constellation Brands for $160 million. He had a successful career in biotech marketing prior to that. He lives in Park City, Utah.

Some interesting insights from this episode:

Learn how his biotech background prepared him for building a whiskey business from scratch.

He moved to Utah to start the company despite the state’s tight liquor laws.

He chose to become a distiller, not just a blender, despite the much larger investment and longer waiting period.

Learn how good contingency planning can help mitigate risk in a startup.

In addition to hard work, good planning and a distinctive product, serendipity played a key role in his success.